Which term refers to the ranking of people in society based on their wealth power and family background and is often related to competition within the community quizlet?

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Terms in this set (42)

inequality

-the unequal access to scarce goods or resources
-involves ranking
-is institutionalized
-is based on membership in a category

social differentiation

-how people differ on social characteristics
-no ranking of characteristics

social stratification

-pattern of inequality in which categories of people are ranked according to their access to societal (valuable) resources
-combination of social differentiation and social inequality

five basic types of societies

-hunting-and-gathering societies
-simple horticultural societies
-advanced horticultural societies
-agarian societies
-industrial societies

hunting-and-gathering societies

-consist of about 50 people, or even fewer, who live on what they can find to eat
-are often nomadic, moving from place to place in search of food
-are usually very poor and must share what they find to eat in order to survive
-surpluses of food or supplies are not accumulated, so no one can become wealthy
-some people may gain special respect because of their age, wisdom, skill in hunting, or magical abilities, but they do not derive any power from their status because there is no area to exercise their authority and little to do except work
-there is little stratification

simple horticultural societies

-people farm using a digging stick as their basic tool
-they have a fairly reliable source of food and may even have a surplus from time to time
-they can remain in one location, build shelters, and make tools
-a surplus of food and supplies allows them some leisure time, which they use for sports and ceremonial activities
-also occasionally fight wars to protect their land
-ceremonial leaders are sometimes paid for performing ceremonies, especially those involving healing, and they may become wealthy
-political leaders, with the assistance of warriors, can capture slaves and enforce their edicts
-as labor is divided among different categories of people and wealth and status accumulate, a stratification system develops

division of labor

develops when some people do certain specialized occupations: warriors, and ceremonial and political leaders, for example

advanced horticultural societies

-farm with irrigation, terracing, and fertilization
-these techniques increase the food supply, so the size of the population can grow
-societies at this level have learned how to work metals
-this increases the variety of material goods, as well as the variety of occupations
-as the size and wealth of the populations increase and a greater variety of occupations develops, stratification increases
-political leaders in advanced horticultural societies become very wealthy and powerful as they increase the size of their armies and slave labor
-social differentiation and stratification are much greater in these societies than in simple horticultural societies

agarian societies

-were found in europe during the middle ages
-have far more sophisticated technology than horticultural societies
-this advanced technology increases the development of centralized power in two ways
-first, as defenses and weapons are improved, arming a warrior with the materials needed to win battles becomes an expensive proposition
-by supplying the weapons, the rich are able to develop armies that they use to conquer land and slaves and to control farmers, who then become the serfs of the society
-second, as the variety of goods grows, a merchant class develops to trade those goods
-the more powerful rulers tax the wealth accumulated by the merchant class and become extremely rich
-as wealth and power become concentrated in the hands of very few people, society becomes severely stratified

industrial societies

-the US and western european countries
-have the greatest division of labor, the most wealth, and therefore the most stratification, at least at the beginnings of industrial revolutions
-industrialization, which is structured on the factory system of production and the assembly line, requires workers to perform very specialized tasks
-workers specialize in operating a particular piece of equipment, packing a manufactured product, driving a truck to market, advertising, etc.
-workers do not produce goods for personal consumption

mechanical solidarity

-a situation in which people do similar work but are not very dependent on each other
-most people farmed and were self-sufficient

organic solidarity

-durkheim believed that the division of labor could create organic solidarity because as each person specializes in one phase of production, he or she becomes dependent on others to produce other products
-as a result, society would become more integrated and people would become more equal
-predictions did not come true
-industrial societies have developed a wide gap between those at the top and those at the bottom
-the surplus of goods produced, when accumulated in the hands of just a few people, make those people very wealthy compared with others

open systems

-individual accomplishments are encouraged and social mobility rewarded with advancements
-equality is not influenced by gender, race, etc as status is based on achievement

closed systems

-status is determined at birth and social mobility is based on a person's social position
-individual achievement is not rewarded because status is determined by law or through inheritance

caste system

-a person's social status is ascribed at birth
-worth is judged on the basis of religious or traditional beliefs about the person or the person's family
-is a very rigid, closed system of stratification
-india, where there are some 3000 castes, provides the best example of a caste system
-status is determined by religion rather than race
-in 1949, india officially outlawed the caste system, yet it remains deeply embedded in the culture and is practiced routinely in rural areas
-the caste into which people are born affects what kind of food they eat, where they live, what kind of medical care they receive, how they are supported in old age, and how they are buried

estate system

-was very similar to a caste, in that status was ascribed and social mobility limited
-law and membership through inheritance determined the identity of a person
-an example of an estate system was during the middle ages in europe, where three estates existed
-the first estate was comprised of nobility, wealthy families, and powerful landowners. their status allowed them great privilege and opportunities, including the right to not work since labor was believed to be beneath them
-the second estate was made up of clergy from the roman catholic church. highly powerful, the church owned land and collected taxes
-the third estate was comprised of commoners, or laborers, particularly those of the land. serfs could only move out of their estate if they were knighted or performed a remarkable deed for the king

slave system

-has been less recognized
-in a slave system, there existed a basic belief in the ownership of humans as labor
-when a person committed certain types of crimes, that person could be sentenced to slavery and required to work for the family of his victim

class system

-social status is defined in terms of wealth and income
-there are no legal definitions of class, so the system is an open system
-classes are fluid-- that is, there is unlimited social mobility between one class and another
-as a result, class societies are highly competitive, and power has become increasingly important to maintain a high position in the stratification system

social class

-wealth + power + prestige + identification
-"a category of people who share roughly the same level of wealth, power, and prestige, and who have a sense of identification with one another"
-is determined by life chances to acquire wealth, power, and prestige
-ex: middle-class

class:wealth

-weber shared karl marx's thought on the concept and significance of class in ranking members of society
-this is especially true for capitalist societies where economic inequality plays a major role in people's life chances
-marx was the first to use the concept of class as a ranking tool in the capitalist stratification system
-by class, marx simply referred to wealth, which is derived essentially through ownership of means of production
-since the owners of the means of production are in the position to exploit their workers, they own all the profits from the labor of their workers, thereby becoming richer than those workers
-with their wealth, the owners occupy the bourgeoisie class and retain dominance over their proletariat workers

social status

-according to weber, is the amount of honor and prestige a person receives from others in the community; therefore, it is the social dimension of class
-prestige can be acquired in a number of ways-- being born into a highly respected family, living in high-status neighborhood, or joining high-status groups or clubs
-people also gain prestige by being able to buy consumer goods that others admire
-status can also be gained by holding respected positions in the community
-thus, people's status is very closely related to their wealth

structural functional theory

-kingsley davis and wilbert moore
-assumption: economic stratification is necessary to maintain social stability as it ensures staff for all positions

how is inequality created?
-based on criteria for distributing rewards:
a. the importance of the task
b. acquired training and skill
c. scarcity of talent and ability
d. the pleasantness of task

conflict theory

-assumption: economic stratification is the result of the structure of economic system of society
-method of resource ownership and extent of competition produces different degrees of stratification

capitalism produces class stratification through:
-private ownership and high level of competition
-creation of classes by access to resources
-exploitation of workers/lower classes
-reproduction of class structure
-stratification benefits the bourgeoisie class, not society
-stratification is unnecessary and unjustifiable

solution: collective ownership of means of production

symbolic interaction theory-the culture of poverty

-oscar lewis
-assumption: the poor cultivate a culture that keeps them in poverty
-they stop trying
-they withdraw from society
-they live for the moment
-economic opportunities won't help them

personal income

-income earned by an individual

last 70 years: richest 20%= earned over 40% of all income
poorest 20%= earned 4-6% of all income

family income

-income earned by all workers in a family household
-is usually higher than household income

household income

-income earned by unrelated people living together under the same roof
-median household income in the US in 2012 was $51,017 and has dropped steadily since 2007

mean income

simple arithmetic average

median income

-is the amount at which half of a given population falls above and half falls below
-is often preferred for comparison because it is statistically more stable than the mean

absolute poverty

-inability to purchase basic life necessities
-determined by poverty line (poverty threshold)

cost of food formula

cost of nutritionally balanced diet for 1 year x 3 =

relative poverty

living below average living standards of one's reference population

personal property

-includes liquid assets (cash in bank accounts), real estate, stocks, bonds, and other owned assets
-the richest 5% of the population now owns as much wealth as the bottom 95% of all americans combined
-the very wealthy actually control even more money than they possess
-by owning many shares of the major corporations, they influence not just their own fortunes but also those of many others

feminization of poverty

-those most likely to live in poverty in the US are women and children
-increasingly the poor include unwed, separated, and divorced mothers who serve as the heads of households
-in 2009, 32.5% of female-headed households were living in poverty
-today women head more than half of all families living in poverty, and many of them receive little support from the fathers of their children

upward mobility

-a change to a job of higher rank or marriage to a person of higher rank
-is vertical mobility

downward mobility

-movement to a job of lower rank is downward mobility
-sometimes, marrying someone of a lower rank can produce downward mobility
-is vertical mobility

horizontal mobility

-if a nurse had left nursing for grade school teaching, she would have experienced a change in occupational status, but not a change in class status
-this is because statuses of a registered nurse and a school teacher are both lower middle class in the US
-this type of mobility, known as horizontal mobility, is the most common form of mobility in the US

intragenerational mobility

persons who change class or status within their own lifetimes experience intragenerational mobility

intergenerational mobility

-mobility between generations
-is traditionally measured by comparing the social position of parents and children

split labor market

-provides even greater obstacles for women, the poor, and minority categories, who mostly occupy the lowest ranks of manual and non-manual occupations
-their jobs often have no career paths at all, and the poor rarely get the opportunity for professional training or apprenticeships in the skilled crafts
-not only is there no mobility in manual work, but also the number of manual-labor jobs is shrinking
-thus, increased technology has eliminated some jobs involving manual labor and has increased the number of white-collar clerical and service jobs

consequences of economic stratification- the rich

-better living conditions
-higher educational completion
-higher-paying white collar jobs
-less likely to become crime victims
-less likely to be frequently ill
-better healthcare and more doctor visits
-likely to hold high political positions (leadership)
-pay lower income proportional tax ratio
-longer lifespan
-higher suicide rate

consequences of economic stratification

-lesser educational completion
-higher likelihood of doing dangerous jobs
-mainly blue-collar jobs (blue collar= get dirty)
-more likely to work for low wages
-more likely to get malnutrition
-higher infant mortality rate
-higher obesity rate
-higher divorce rate
-more likely to perpetuate violent crimes
-more likely to be crime victims
-lesser suicide rate
-more likely to have strong religious faith

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